manhoodlessness

because that's nicer than saying we cut off his [ahem's], right?

devin took cooper to the vet Friday morning at about 7:30a.m. and just before 10:00, we got a call saying the surgery was over and everything went well. we could come pick him up any time after 2:00, so he could spend some time in recovery.

i was at work twiddling my thumbs all morning, and devin woke up sick so he decided to take the day off from route setting. i couldn't get off work until 2:30, but when I did, I drove straight home to pick up devin and we headed to the vet's office. they went over his recovery care with us and explained his medication and then we waited for them to bring him out. it seemed like it took forever! we probably only waited for about 3 minutes. when he came out, the first thing i noticed was that he was walking a little funny (go figure) and that he looked really confused. he recognized us and came up to us right away, but it seemed like he didn't really know who we were, just that it was something he was familiar with. during the drive home, it got more and more obvious how out of it he was.

he had drool dried all over one side of his face, an unknown spot of dried up green something on one paw, and a giraffe bandage on one arm from where the IV was. he seemed like he was feeling fine, just still a little groggy from the anesthesia, which i expected. he did lots and lots of staring. he kept staring at his giraffe bandage like "what is that?!" it was so funny! once we got home, he started to try to lick at his stitches, so we put the cone on. he immediately stiffened up and wouldn't move. he just stood there, perfectly still for a good 10 minutes.

we finally coaxed him onto the couch with us and he tried so hard to stay awake. he kept nodding his head and rocking a little bit and finally went to sleep, so i took the cone off. when devin left to grab some dinner, i decided to put the cone back on so i wouldn't have to battle him and watch his every move and he did the same thing: just held perfectly still. he acts like he's stuck and can't move. he absolutely hates it! he looks so angry and annoyed. i think it's partly because of the anesthesia still though. he is still pretty out of it, but the second i pulled out his elephant toy, he cheered right up! i think we'll have our cooper back sooner than we think, but i also think he'll have to be in the cone until his stitches are totally healed because they are clearly driving him crazy and i can't really blame him!

we took off the giraffe bandage on his arm where the IV was and noticed they shaved a pretty big patch on his arm and as soon as we took off the bandage he started licking it like crazy. it seems like it's bothering him more than the stitches right now. they also shaved a spot just above his paw on the back of his wrist on the other arm, probably for a heart monitor? my poor puppy haha he is so confused and annoyed and sleepy. i'm glad we were able to get the surgery done on the weekend so we can be with him for these first few days while he's dealing with it all. i'm already anxious to have my puppy back to normal!

while we were at the vet's office, cooper's dr, Dr Hammond came out and saw us and said "was that your little critter we had back there today? he's gotten big!" little critter. ha. love it! the vet tech also put a note on the bottom of the recovery sheet instructions that says "cooper is a very nice puppy!" that made my glad because devin said that on monday when he took him in for the blood work, they had to muzzle him because he's been nippy to the vet techs before. we also got him microchipped today!

here's hoping to a quick recovery for my little trooper!